1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an improved vacuum cleaning apparatus and method wherein the vacuum cleaner does not need to be shut off in order to remove the dirt filled container and can in fact continue vacuum suction at an undiminished rate during removal of a vacuum filter canister. The present invention further provides a multiplicity of dirt capturing chambers which can be removed sequentially and in rotation without affecting the vacuuming process, thereby increasing to infinity the cleaning capacity of the vacuum cleaner system. The present invention further relates to improvements in a present co-pending patent application by inventor Richard C. K. Yen, namely, patent application Ser. No. 07/407,414 filed 09/14/89 and entitled "Apparatus For Vacuum Cleaner With Uninterrupted And Undiminished Performance" (hereafter "'414 application").
2. Background of the Invention
The closest technology to the present invention is the technology disclosed and claimed in the '414 application in which a vacuum cleaner utilized a multiple chamber arrangement in series to allow: 1) continuous vacuuming while changing the filter bags that are filled, 2) first collection of dirt in the proximal chamber which is closest to the inflow of dirty air, and 3) negative pressure to loosen the dirt collected in any chamber to facilitate continuous vacuuming efficiency in the same chamber.
One drawback of the apparatus in the '414 application is caused by the nature of the in-series fluid flow arrangement. The in-series fluid flow configuration of the multiplicity of vacuum canisters permits obstruction of any part of the pathway of flow of dirty fluid to obstruct the flow of dirty fluid distal to or beyond the site of obstruction. There exists the need for other arrangements to achieve the same objective of 1) high efficiency filtration, 2) shifting to new areas of unobstructed filter membrane area upon progressively lower efficiency of filtration at used filter membrane areas, and 3) allowing a continuous process of vacuuming while changing filter bags in chambers that have been nearly or completely filled.
In addition, because the proximal or first chamber in devices of the '414 application is closest to the motor or vacuuming source, it is difficult to change or clean the dirty first chamber. To change the entire canister holding the first chamber, at least three points must be disconnected. There is a need for an improved apparatus which simplifies the number of points on the device which must be disconnected when removing a filtering member.